his lay-off would go on for many months at least, yet within days there was speculation that he was gearing up for a comeback much sooner than that.
Making the first major of the season - an event Woods has won four times - his first tournament back will not please everybody because of the massive focus on him that cannot be avoided.
World No.2 Steve Stricker said at the weekend: "Whenever he comes back it's going to draw a lot of attention to that tournament."
"I don't know if Augusta would like that to happen, you know? To turn it into 'Tiger's Comeback Tournament' instead of the Masters tournament itself."
"Hopefully, he comes back before then. You'd think, as a player, being gone for so long, he'd want to come back before."
Following the death of his father Earl in 2006, Woods returned for the United States Open a month later. He missed the halfway cut, but a month after that lifted The Open at Hoylake.
His total of majors now stands at 14, four short of Jack Nicklaus's record.
Four of those wins have come at Augusta and, until his off-course behaviour was uncovered, this season looked a heaven-sent opportunity to become the first player ever to win all four majors in one year.
The US Open in June is at Pebble Beach, where he won by a major record 15 shots in 2000, while The Open in July returns to the Old Course at St Andrews where he won by eight 10 years ago and by five in 2005.
The bookmakers have already installed him as favourite for The Masters and if he does somehow win the first three, he would go to Whistling Straits for the US PGA in August with the chance to move alongside Nicklaus.